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Officials at Clemson University have confirmed that ordinary Christians are forbidden to exercise their First Amendment right to assemble on campus in discreet prayer unless they first obtain a permit, which then restricts them to a "designated free speech zone."

“. . . referring to a silent offer to pray as ‘solicitation’ is not fair. It’s a very different circumstance than someone coming on campus to solicit, say, a new textbook to students without permission.”-- Emily Jashinsky, Young Americans for FreedomRead more...

Samuel Sherwood (1730-1783) was a graduate of Yale and Princeton (at the time led by his uncle Aaron Burr), who pastored in Weston (CT) from 1757 to his death in 1783. Next to this sermon, his other published sermon (also of political import) was his sermon, “The Church’s Flight into the Wilderness” (see the earlier sermon in this series here).

Delivered on a Connecticut Fast Day in 1774, the full title of this sermon flies the flag: “A sermon, containing Scriptural instructions to civil rulers, and all free-born subjects. In which the principles of sound policy and good government are established and vindicated; and some doctrines advanced and zealously propagated by New-England Tories, are considered and refuted.” It also includes “an appendix, stating the heavy grievances the colonies labour under from several late acts of the…

A group of Maoist rebels have kidnapped, tortured and Killed a Pastor in Andhra Pradesh, India. Pastor Yohan Maraiah was dragged from his home and taken into the forest. His body was dumped near the village, with his hands tied behind his back. The 45-years old pastor was tortured, beat and was killed by slitting his throat. They dumped his body three hours later, with a note beside.The Rebels claim that he was killed because of having “accumulated wealth”, whereas the pastor served the poorest of the village.

The note from the Maoists said that they killed pastor Yohan and also have a plan of killing his brother for being friendly with the police. They also accused pastor Yohan’s elder brother, who is also a pastor for “changing people with his tricky talks that changes their heart and mind and converts them.” The note extends and adds that the two deceived “our innocent people” to accumulate wealth for themselves through criminal activities.

American hostage Kayla Mueller was tortured, verbally abused, forced into slave labor for ISIS commanders in Syria and raped by the group's top leader, but her fellow hostages say she never surrendered hope, she selflessly put the welfare of fellow captives above her own and she even stood up to executioner "Jihadi John" to defend her Christian faith.

Four former hostages who shared cells with Mueller, speaking publicly for the first time about their shared ordeal for ABC News' "20/20" broadcast, "The Girl Left Behind," airing Friday, say the Prescott, Arizona, humanitarian aid worker was a courageous 25-year-old who inspired them.

Their ISIS guards were overseen by the British tough Mohammed Emwazi, who would later be dubbed Jihadi John, as he carried out the beheadings and killings of 10 hostages. The Londoner led three other Britons who oversaw the hostage op…

Reported in Chinese by Qiao Nong. Translated by Carolyn Song. Written in English by Brynne Lawrence.

(Shangqiu, Henan—Aug. 22, 2015) Amid escalating pressure to join state-run churches, a house church in China’s central Henan province rejected a government order to stop its religious activities by July 20.

On July 15, the Zhecheng County Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau issued a notice to Proclaiming Christ Church, citing provincial religious affairs regulations and indicating that the church met without government approval. They ordered the church stop its religious activities by July 20. Read more...
HT: Christian News Network

Kayla Mueller was an American aid worker who was enslaved for three years by the Former Islamic State (ISIS) and was killed during the Jordanian air strikes in early 2015. Her fellow captives, who were released, claim that Kayla held on to her faith while the captors tried to convert her to Islam.

This 25 year old girl has been kept as a slave and was reportedly subjected to verbal abuse, tortured and was raped by one of the ISIS leaders. Former hostage Daniel Rye, one among the captives, started to say ,” Oh, this is Kayla, and she has been held all by herself. And she’s much stronger than you guys. And she’s smarter. She converted to Islam”; For which Kayla’s response was,”No, I didn’t!“.

Kayla Mueller defended her faith on Christ, responding bravely to the most dangerous human beings on this earth. everyone were surprised by her bravery. “I would not have had the guts to say that..." Read more...

WILLIS, Texas — The attorney general of Texas has upheld the practice of a local justice of the peace who has been under fire from a professing atheist organization for allowing chaplains to deliver daily invocations in his courtroom.

According to reports, Judge Wayne Mack of Willis opens each day with a ceremony that includes an invocation. The prayer is offered by a local chaplain, and the invocation is open to all religions.

But the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) says that it received two complaints in 2014 about the offering of Christian prayers: one from an attorney and another from a local citizen. It states that they felt coerced to participate out of fear of being disrespectful.Read more...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A chancellor at the University of New Mexico was recently recorded acknowledging that a staff member acquired the brains of aborted babies to use for dissection at a high school summer camp.

New Mexico Alliance for Life recently uploaded a short video in which Dr. Paul Roth, the chancellor of the University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center and dean of the School of Medicine, is asked about the matter.

“Can I please ask you to say what you said before regarding the workshop with human fetal remains with high school students?” Marcie May with New Mexico Alliance for Life asks in the footage.Read more...

Abby posted the following status on her Facebook page on Saturday, April 6.

I am so tired of the denominational divide. I don’t care if you are Baptist, Muslim, Atheist…whatever. If you are pro-life, I will stand with you. All of this fighting about religion is really ridiculous. Are there differences among all of us? Yes. Does that mean we can’t work together? Absolutely not. Just cut it out. While we fight, babies die.I was horrified. I completely disagreed and said so, but almost no one took my side. They all agreed with Abby – spouting inclusivism, unity for life, and religi…

Every Christian will likely encounter this scenario: someone you know and who professes Christ has a major sin in their life exposed. As a result, relationships are harmed, their reputation is destroyed, and their heart is broken. You, as their friend (or pastor or spouse) are left wondering how to respond.

You know that Christians are called to forgive and restore other believers who have their sin exposed, but you also know that this is only true if they are repentant over their sin. For example, the command in Galatians 6:1 to “restore” a fallen believer is paired with an exhortation about the importance of self-examination (vv. 2-4). Or Paul, in 2 Corinthians 7, tell the Corinthians that he stands ready to forgive them, because the exposure of their sin produced godly sorrow as opposed to worldly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:9-11).

So what are you supposed to do? The person in front of you says they are repentant. They say they are sorry abou…

Few things are as distressing to cops, nurses, and pastors (or chaplains) as domestic violence. A cop will tell you that responding to a domestic violence call is never pleasant and often dangerous. In cases of domestic violence emotions run high. People do not think clearly. Drugs and alcohol are often in play. Such situations are volatile. They can also be difficult cases for ministers, elders, and deacons to address. Abusers come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. It can be a real shock to find out that fellow you thought to be an upstanding member of the men’s Bible study has been abusing his wife for the last three years. She hid it well. She did not call the police. She became skilled at covering up the marks with make up and, when that failed, she became equally skilled making self-deprecating excuses (“I fell,” “I’m so clumsy”). Eventually, however, it was too much and she finally called the police and news of the abuser’s arrest…

The entire service of Communion that Sabbath day on August 23, 1752 lasted nine hours. But for some two hundred and fifty Covenanters gathered on that spot, it was their first communion outside the British Isles.

The teaching elder on that Lord’s Day was the Rev. John Cuthbertson, who was the first Reformed Presbyterian minister in the colonies. As the only one, he had logged nearly 70,000 miles in the wilds of Colonial America, ministering to scattered Covenanters. Often, there was no church building. So they worshiped at various sites called “tents.” It consisted of a large tree, with a wooden stand for the minister, and another for a Bible, with rough pews for the people, and nothing but the open sky for the roof. On this occasion, they met at the Junkin Tent, just north of present day New Kingstown, Pennsylvania.

The communion at this first meeting in America lasted five days, with worship times on three of the five days. The firs…

COLORADO SPRINGS, Co. — The leader of a prominent activist organization that seeks to separate God from the military is asking that the Air Force “aggressively punish” a superior officer who has long displayed an open Bible on his desk.

According to reports, Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) recently sent a letter to Col. Damon Feltman, the commander of the 310th Space Wing at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, to issue a complaint about the Bible displayed by Maj. Steve Lewis, a supervisor at the Reserve National Security Space Institute.

“For years, [Lewis] has kept an open, yellow-highlighted Christian Bible displayed front and center, quite prominently, on his official USAF work desk in an open office work environment,” Weinstein said.Read more...

“The Christian world is in a deep sleep; nothing but a loud shout can awaken them out of it.”
~ George Whitefield
It does appear that many churches of USA is in a deep sleep. While many are steeped in entertainment, many souls are dying and will be going to hell today, tomorrow, and the next subsequent days. This is not a guilt trip to condemn one from enjoying the common things of life. We are thankful to the Lord that He would allow us to enjoy aspects of His creative acts. But here is the question, when was the last time I exposed evil and shared the Gospel? Have I become apathetic? Earth is the closest to heaven for the unbeliever and earth is the closest to hell for the believer. Since we have the immortal blessings provided for us, we must press hard before the return of Christ so that unbelievers may have the opportunity to come to into the celestial kingdom of salvation. Why must the church awaken from its sleep?

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two unborn babies were found at a wastewater treatment plant in South Carolina last Monday, prompting an investigation by law enforcement.

According to reports, workers at the Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant found the dead babies in the water on Aug. 8. as they were cleaning out the filter screens at the plant. They spotted a small hand, then the rest of the infant’s body—then another baby. Neither child was fully intact.

Police were called to the scene, and were taken to the pump station to be shown the preterm babies.Read more...

If there’s one thing to which human history overwhelmingly testifies, it is that we are fervently religious creatures. Among the rocks and rubble of human cultures throughout the millennia is evidence of the pursuit of spiritual things. As humanity, we have exerted extraordinary effort into the worship of figures such as Ra, Gaia, Dazhbog, Zeus, Aphrodite, Shiva, Vishnu, Izanagi, Izanami, Ahura Mazda, and gods of our own understanding. We’ve worshiped rocks, stars, trees, comfort, the dead, the living, and even ourselves. The world has seen her brahmins, caliphs, Siddartha Gautamas, and Joseph Smiths. We are natural-born worshipers.

And you’ve probably heard it said before. “When it comes down to it, most of the world religions are pretty much the same.” But is that true? For example, Judaism, Mormonism, Islam, and Christianity; they propose a problem with the world, a solution, and the worship of a deity. Other religions such as Buddhism, Hin…

I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! 1 Corinthians 6.5, 6

Justice in the civil arena

We’re examining some of the criteria which must guide contemporary believers in applying the Law of God to life in the Church and the Kingdom economy today. We have said that the Church is not ancient Israel. Rather, as the new Israel, living in the age of grace and the Spirit, church leaders will need to reflect carefully – following the example of Jesus and the Apostles – on how the statutes and precepts of ancient Israel are to be obeyed in our own day.

We do not keep the Law in order to earn our salvation, but to realize our salvation, prove our discipleship, and thus make progress in spreading the grace of Jesus Christ…

Spiritual abuse is a broad category in that it can encompass many different kinds of relationships, contexts, and situations. Wherever there is a two-tiered system of leaders and followers, spiritual abuse can happen.

Any place where a person chooses to dominate, manipulate, or seek to control someone else is a context for spiritual abuse. I regularly see spiritual abuse in marriage counseling, where one spouse is creating havoc in the other spouse’s life.

I think most people would equate spiritual abuse as something that happens in a local church or within a denominational setting. When Peter wrote about spiritual abuse, he most certainly had the local church in mind.

Not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. – 1 Peter 5:3 (ESV)The word spiritual speaks to the type and the location of the abuse–it is spiritual in nature and it happens inside of a person. Spiritual abuse is different from physically beating someone or bringing other forms …

Americans United for Separation of Church and State plans to sue the Berkeley County School District based in Moncks Corner, South Carolina because the Board has voted to ignore the atheists' threats and continue a years-long practice of opening board meetings with the Lord's Prayer.“We’re americans, aren’t we? Looking back at where our nation began we cannot, cannot as a nation forget we have a God and all that we do we must acknowledge that. Let’s continue to do the right thing … there’s nothing wrong with public prayer as long as we do it in accordance with the law.”-- Julius Barnes, board memberRead more...

Brian Houston’s best selling book, Live Love Lead, was published in September 2015. At the time of the book’s publication, the public was becoming aware of a continuing cover-up perpetuated at Houston’s hands, with perhaps the complicit support of the government’s lead investigator into the sordid matter of multiple claims of the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by Houston’s pastor father, Frank.

In his book, Houston devotes a chapter, entitled The Worst Day of My Life, to recounting his version of the day when the pedophilic proclivities of his father first came to his attention.

“George [Aghajanian, General Manager, Hillsong Church] proceeded to tell me how a phone call had come into our church office. The caller told one of our pastors that he had recently been ministering at a local church and that after his talk, a lady wanted to speak with him. It was during this conversation that she exposed to him something (I later learned) she…

What should Christians do when they are blamed for problems in culture that they did not cause? Or when they are held responsible for things they did not do?

After the Orlando shooting at the Pulse nightclub in June, Christians were accused of being complicit. David French and Denny Burk each reflected on this blame-casting. The pattern may repeat itself in future events. It can be easy to become defensive or to go on the offensive, but before we do, it is worth considering the example of Moses.

Moses faced a situation with some similarities as recorded in Numbers 16. After wandering for years in the wilderness, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram challenged the leadership of Moses and Aaron in the nation of Israel. Specifically, Aaron’s priestly leadership was challenged.Read more...

Every good mystery starts off with “It was a dark and stormy night.” But this is a different kind of mystery. It’s about a church, a Bride, that was mysteriously kidnapped by a dark, deceitful stranger who came as an angel of light and promised her many great things if she would just follow him. And it’s about a small insignificant publishing company who teamed up with members of the Bride who did not succumb to the angel of light, in an effort to find out what happened to her and how to bring her back to safety.

In the summer of 2000, there was no Lighthouse Trails Publishing. There wasn’t even a glimmer in anyone’s mind about it. Dave and I were nearing the final round of raising a half a dozen kids in a small town in Oregon, one nestled in the Cascade foothills. We had been alerted in 1997 to a thing called Y2K and helped put together a task force in our little town. Not because we …

By Yu Jie - Posted at First Things:
"In China, home churches outnumber government-sponsored churches three to one. Against home churches that refuse to cooperate, the government has waged a large-scale cleansing campaign in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, particularly in the city of Wenzhou, known as “China’s Jerusalem,” where 15 percent of the population is Christian. In two years, more than two hundred churches in Zhejiang have been demolished, over two thousand crosses removed. The scene of the cross being removed from a church in Ya village, Huzhou city, on August 7, 2015, was typical. Migrant workers hired by government officials flipped over the parish car, then the police came. They arrested the pastor, intimidated parishioners, sequestered church grounds, and pepper-sprayed protesters. They charged into the church with dogs. Buddhist monks and Taoist priests hired by the officials came to chant and perform rites in front of the church. Dozens, including the chu…

(Morning Star News) – Two Christians were among four activists convicted under fabricated charges of “subverting state power” in China last week.

The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced house-church leader Hu Shigen, 61, on Wednesday (Aug. 3) to seven and a half years in prison on charges of “subverting state power” for his work as an activist advocating democracy, according to news reports. On Friday (Aug. 5), the court sentenced Christian activist Gou Hongguo to a three-year, suspended sentence on the same charge. The 55-year-old Gou thus will not serve time in prison.

Also sentenced was 55-year-old human rights advocate Zhai Yanmin, who on Tuesday (Aug. 2) received a three-year suspended sentence for “subverting state power.” Prosecutors accused Zhai, along with Hu, Zhou and detained lawyer Li Heping, of establishing “a systematic ideology, method and steps to achieve” subverting state power, according to state media.

Reading Jerry Bridges is invariably good for my soul. He had such a way of reaching deep into the Bible to draw out helpful, heartfelt application. In his book on humility (release posthumously) he offers application that seems particularly appropriate to a time of political turmoil and disunity, and to a time of deep national depravity.

Bridges has just explained that mourning over sin is a display of humility because “We cannot be proud and mourn over sin at the same time. We cannot be judgmental toward other believers, or even toward unbelievers, if we are truly contrite and brokenhearted over our sin.” Then he says this:

The Greek word that Jesus used for mourn is used twice elsewhere for mourning over sin: 1 Corinthians 5:2 and James 4:9. James uses it in the context of our sin, but Paul uses it in the context of tolerating the sin of someone else. I think that in Paul’s use there is a lesson for us to apply in today’s culture.Read more...

Vote as if your ballot determines nothing whatsoever—except the shape of your own character.

Recently, while I was having lunch with some young colleagues at the Witherspoon Institute, one of them asked me a pointed question. “If your vote were the deciding one in the election, with either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump becoming president on the basis of your vote alone, for which one would you vote?”

It was an earnest question, and I gave an honest answer. But then I felt obliged to object to the question, and I want to elaborate upon my objections here. I will not repeat my honest answer, for reasons I hope will become plain.

First of all, no one ever actually is in the situation my colleague constructed in his question. A one-vote margin of victory in any election—let alone a nationwide presidential election—is an exceedingly rare occurrence that most of us will never experience. But more importantly, we all vote more or less …

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a Virginia school district’s request for an emergency injunction to temporarily halt a lower court ruling that would have required officials to allow a female student who identifies as male to use the boys’ restroom.

The court voted 5-3 to grant the injunction while the matter is being considered for an appeal, with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan siding with the student.

As previously reported, Gavin Grimm, now 17, told reporters in December 2014 that she began using the boys’ restroom after obtaining permission from the school principal when she expressed disapproval over being forced to use the nurse restroom.Read more...

This recent article rightly points to pornography as a factor to an increasingly lax attitude toward marital infidelity among younger adults:

In July, Ashley Madison—the infamous cheating website whose 37 million clients were exposed by a hacker last year—launched a new ad campaign aimed at rebranding the commercialization of infidelity. According to The Atlantic, the changes include a new tagline—from the in-your-face, “life is short, have an affair,” to the perhaps more subtle, “Find your moment.” The company’s president explained the rebrand as an effort to “evolve, grow and attune to modern sexuality in 2016.”
While Ashley Madison’s creators might be trying to revamp the public image of cheating-for-hire, the vast majority of American adults still disapprove of cheating on a spouse. But that might be changing among younger generations, according to new research from Paul Hemez at the National Center…

In July, Ashley Madison—the infamous cheating website whose 37 million clients were exposed by a hacker last year—launched a new ad campaign aimed at rebranding the commercialization of infidelity. According to The Atlantic, the changes include a new tagline—from the in-your-face, “life is short, have an affair,” to the perhaps more subtle, “Find your moment.” The company’s president explained the rebrand as an effort to “evolve, grow and attune to modern sexuality in 2016.”

While Ashley Madison’s creators might be trying to revamp the public image of cheating-for-hire, the vast majority of American adults still disapprove of cheating on a spouse. But that might be changing among younger generations, according to new research from Paul Hemez at the National Center for Family and Marriage Research (NCFMR) at Bowling Green State University.

Hemez used data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to examine adult attitudes about marital infidelity, …

It seems that in many of these political discussions on the upcoming election, we tend, as a group, to think a lot about political policy outcomes but think little to none about Kingdom outcomes. Here is what I mean:

What if our witness to the world depended (in large part) on how we collectively vote as Christians? The world is definitely watching. How many "Christians" would be willing to give up their vote for their candidate if they knew it meant, by the grace of God, more people coming to Christ? ... but in exchange we knew we would have to live under a much more oppressive state. I obviously do not know God's secret will, but my point is that obedience, instead of pragmatism, is definitely more aligned with God's revealed will and His redemptive plan, especially when much of the world would see mass evangelical votes for Trump as an obvious and blatant hypocrisy. As followers of Christ, our choices should be based, not on …

Some have asked why Alliance Defending Freedom did not drop its lawsuit and declare victory after the Iowa Civil Rights Commission changed its controversial brochure applying a state speech ban and restroom law to churches.

We didn’t drop the lawsuit—because changing the brochure did not make the unconstitutional state law constitutional.

The brochure itself was appalling. For the first time in our nation’s history, a state openly applied its sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) law to churches. According to the state’s own words, Iowa churches that welcome the public to their church services must censor their teaching on human sexuality and open their restrooms, changing facilities, and other sensitive areas to members of the opposite biological sex. Failure to comply is punished with crippling fines.

Numerous voices decried the brochure, including Commissioner Peter Kirsanow of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Iowa commission b…